- Joined
- Apr 14, 2004
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- 1,475
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- 818-953-9230
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- www.marksoffroad.net
Now that I think I've purchased what may be my 'last' FJ40, and it's not going to be a resto project, I've decided to open up the vault and let go of my best set of hubcaps. I've been holding onto them for several years now, considering they're even nicer than the ones I have mounted on my swb45 resto. They have their own special story, and here it is.
A few months before my drive to TX for the Lone Star Roundup in 2005, and just a few months after joining the online community of Pirate 4x4, I got a 'cold' call at the shop. It just happened to be on one of the days that my wife was helping me, and she answered the phone. Now, when I'm fortunate enough to have help, I have asked her, as my old boss taught me, to 'screen' the calls to the extent of finding out at least who it is and what they want.
Nonetheless, a minute after the phone rings, Tina comes out and just tells me to take the phone. I stare at her incredulously and finally ask, “Well?” She replies, “Just take the phone.” I am not pleased.
On the line is an old man who has to ask “Is this Mark?” This is not going well. He then proceeds to tell me all about the 1966 FJ40 that he bought brand new, how much he really loved it, how it was stolen by some hoodlums a couple of years after he bought it, taken on a joyride and wrecked, and what he would do to the punks if he ever caught him. After a few minutes of this story, the little voice in my head is screaming 'get to the point!' but I am too nice to say it.
So finally he says to me that he was cleaning out his garage and he found the hubcaps to his '66, and he wanted to know if I thought they were worth anything! Well now he's certainly got my attention. I ask him if they're the kind with the black painted sections, or the ones with the acorns. He says acorns. I ask him if they're all rusty and dinged up. He says no, he took them off the rig WHEN IT WAS SIX MONTHS OLD and has had them stored in his garage EVER SINCE!
I told him that even sight unseen I could guarantee they were worth a good chunk of money, which was apparently enough to get him to say, “Okay, I'll send them to you.”
I hung up the phone very pleasantly surprised, only to find myself thinking, about ten seconds later, that there was a pretty good chance my chain had just been yanked by some jerk from Pirate 4x4! I went inside the office and told my wife my theory, which she countered by saying that she had indeed done 'something' before putting me on the phone, which was write the guy's number down!
So when the hubcaps hadn't shown up about two weeks later, I called the number. Sure enough, the old man answered the phone, apologized for being busy, and said he would get on it. Four or five days later, the box showed up. It was a pretty big box. I tore into it with Christmas morning frenzy and found myself unwrapping FIVE of the nicest hubcaps I've ever seen! I promptly wrote out a hansome check and mailed it off. I took the caps home and compared them to the ones on my restored swb45 and they were indeed nicer, and would have made a good home on the pickup. But as a matter of principle, I would and will not take off the caps that are on there, because they were a personal gift to me from one of the pioneers of the Landcruiser world, Earl Warden.
I have kept these caps thinking that I would get around to doing another restoration project, but have come to realize I would much rather wheel than build another restoration...ever! So here they are. They will be for sale shortly...in a different thread.
A few months before my drive to TX for the Lone Star Roundup in 2005, and just a few months after joining the online community of Pirate 4x4, I got a 'cold' call at the shop. It just happened to be on one of the days that my wife was helping me, and she answered the phone. Now, when I'm fortunate enough to have help, I have asked her, as my old boss taught me, to 'screen' the calls to the extent of finding out at least who it is and what they want.
Nonetheless, a minute after the phone rings, Tina comes out and just tells me to take the phone. I stare at her incredulously and finally ask, “Well?” She replies, “Just take the phone.” I am not pleased.
On the line is an old man who has to ask “Is this Mark?” This is not going well. He then proceeds to tell me all about the 1966 FJ40 that he bought brand new, how much he really loved it, how it was stolen by some hoodlums a couple of years after he bought it, taken on a joyride and wrecked, and what he would do to the punks if he ever caught him. After a few minutes of this story, the little voice in my head is screaming 'get to the point!' but I am too nice to say it.
So finally he says to me that he was cleaning out his garage and he found the hubcaps to his '66, and he wanted to know if I thought they were worth anything! Well now he's certainly got my attention. I ask him if they're the kind with the black painted sections, or the ones with the acorns. He says acorns. I ask him if they're all rusty and dinged up. He says no, he took them off the rig WHEN IT WAS SIX MONTHS OLD and has had them stored in his garage EVER SINCE!
I told him that even sight unseen I could guarantee they were worth a good chunk of money, which was apparently enough to get him to say, “Okay, I'll send them to you.”
I hung up the phone very pleasantly surprised, only to find myself thinking, about ten seconds later, that there was a pretty good chance my chain had just been yanked by some jerk from Pirate 4x4! I went inside the office and told my wife my theory, which she countered by saying that she had indeed done 'something' before putting me on the phone, which was write the guy's number down!
So when the hubcaps hadn't shown up about two weeks later, I called the number. Sure enough, the old man answered the phone, apologized for being busy, and said he would get on it. Four or five days later, the box showed up. It was a pretty big box. I tore into it with Christmas morning frenzy and found myself unwrapping FIVE of the nicest hubcaps I've ever seen! I promptly wrote out a hansome check and mailed it off. I took the caps home and compared them to the ones on my restored swb45 and they were indeed nicer, and would have made a good home on the pickup. But as a matter of principle, I would and will not take off the caps that are on there, because they were a personal gift to me from one of the pioneers of the Landcruiser world, Earl Warden.
I have kept these caps thinking that I would get around to doing another restoration project, but have come to realize I would much rather wheel than build another restoration...ever! So here they are. They will be for sale shortly...in a different thread.
, friggin sweet Mark. thanks for sharing.
